Business Breakfast Forum: The Future of Home Buying

Portland Press Herald Audio

Millennials, people from their late 30s to early 20s, are expected to make 45 percent of home purchases in the U.S. this year. That influx is changing the way people buy and sell homes, and creating new challenges for real estate agents. iBuying, anyone?

On the panel

Host: Press Herald Business Reporter Pete McGuire Peter McGuire is a business reporter covering Maine trade, transportation and tourism. A proud native of the western Maine mountains, Peter has covered local news for newspapers in Oxford County, Brunswick, Waterville and Portland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Boston University.

Dava Davin, Broker and Principal, Portside Real Estate Group

Dava Davin founded Portside Real Estate Group in 2012. Portside has four locations and annual sales of $310,000,000. Portside donates over $40,000 a year to Maine non-profits through hosted fundraiser events. Davin leads a sales team which sold about 100 properties in 2018, ranking them in the top five of all residential agents and teams in the state of Maine. She currently serves on the board of the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland and is an active member of the Greater Portland Board of Realtors, MEREDA and is a past board member of the Maine Association of Realtors and Falmouth/Cumberland Chamber of Commerce.

Sue Quilty, Senior Vice President of Loan Operations, Residential Mortgage Services

Sue began working with RMS as a consultant in 2014 and joined permanently in 2016. For over 20 years, Sue had her own consulting firm providing regulatory compliance, quality control and operations support to financial institutions. She brings her strong reputation with regulators and industry leaders to RMS. Sue is SVP of Loan Operations overseeing Operational Risk, Centralized Disclosing, Closing, Post-Closing and the Denied/Withdrawn Team.

Michael Sosnowski, Owner + Broker, Maine Home Connection

Michael, and his wife Laura, have lived in Maine since 2000. They have operated Maine Home Connection for the last five years, and were previously with RE/MAX and Keller Williams. After working for several large manufacturing companies, Michael became a sales and marketing Vice President with Sappi Fine Paper Company, which led him to relocate to Portland. Sales and marketing have always been important aspects of his career. Michael has a undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. Once in real estate, Laura and Michael always aspired to own their own brokerage, focusing on advanced forms of marketing, video production and technology – all aimed at delivering a unique client experience. Not being part of any national franchise allow the Maine Home Connection to be flexible to market conditions and quick at adopting new technologies.